It was so clear to me
that it was almost invisible.
I lie across the path waiting
just for a chance to be a spiderweb
trapped in your lashes;
for that, I would trade you
my empire for ashes.
But I choke it back, how much I need love...
--Neko Case, "Middle Cyclone"
Today, the Telenias is the keeper of lost knowledge - one of two people alive who bears the burden of the memory of the Fall. Of something so terrible that the Dasaroi's immortality was revoked, their powers reduced to a fraction of what they'd once been.
It is a hell of a burden.
Starting tomorrow, see what brought him there. Because forty years ago, the Telenias was a young man named Alexander Tallart who thought his future held nothing more weighty than a position as archivist at the Library, a few concerts a month, and a life being of use to his cousin and Kithara.
And then there was this girl.
And this Council.
And nothing, from that point on, went quite as planned.
Welcome home. You're early.
(Portrait by
ultra_lilac. Ribbon by charitypomaybo.)